September 29th Sorry! I do hope that this week’s thumbnail didn’t scare you. It was our first photo on the way to the phone store. This is me at the end of a water pipe, X10 zoom, (=240mm), warmified by Picasa. I quite like it.
What’s this? It’s me, again. From the phone store we went to the supermarket. We needed more baps for the freezer. Huan also found pickled garlic and I found some garlic sausages.
Now who can tell me what this poor little kitty is thinking about? Just look at its eyes. I had just been stroking a dog just a few minutes earlier.
We walked back the Little Island way. What happened to our beautiful little island?
The control station has been cleaned up; no doubt repairs will begin shortly.
We did have to cross a minor hurdle on the way. We think this may be the reason why we had no electricity for nearly two days. This is a pylon and although it didn’t appear to be carrying any cables we think it may have fallen across the overhead cables that go to our place.
Crossing the first bridge we thought a photo of our apartment was called for.
Finally, for the morning, here are a couple more sad photos of our beautiful island and river. The sun is still shining though and the government and nature will soon return our beauty.
After lunch I put the new 360⁰ wheels on our computer carts. I told Huan that she didn’t need to take photos of both, they are identical after all.
On our way out to dinner I thought I would take a photo of the landslide opposite our place. I had previously taken one with the camera. This one was with the Huawei at 10X zoom. I have to say that I am impressed. This is also only a mid-range phone, not a flagship.
Huan had a music class tonight so dinner was local.
I started off well with a sausage, in honour of #1 son.
Dinner then arrives, some type of congee for Huan and noodles for me.
My experience quickly deteriorated. Huawei’s translation failed me and I didn’t get braised meatballs with green beans. Instead I got ham (fake sausage bits) with green beans, peanuts and some tiny bits of pork. It was also a very spicy dish and I struggled. Even adding yoghurt from the snack shop next door didn’t help very much. The first photo shows me with tears running down my face, and a mess on my chins. Sorry about that. The second photo shows Huan’s bowl after she finished with the chilli oil spooned out of my soup.
To cheer myself up I took some twilight photos on the way home.
September 30th Today was just admin in the morning, more sorting out of my new phone. I have managed to install a VPN, so communication with family should be fine. I went through the old phone making sure I didn’t need any data before carrying out a factory reset. Because we didn’t go out I also finished my Chinese classes. Coming towards lunch time though we had to go out, Huan has free music lessons in the evening again so dinner at lunch time is more convenient. First we took my old phone, and an even older Honor phone of Huan’s to the repair shop. He may have a use for the parts. So, we went to Sister Gu’s place for dinner again, resulting in a grand total of one collage for today. Huan’s dinner and sauce is at the top, mine is at the bottom and our shared free drinks are in the middle. What a healthy dinner it was too!
That was it for today. Mind you, Huan’s music class, just like the last one, started asking for money so that’s another one she declined. What did I do? Not a lot, I ordered three shower caps from Taobao, one each for us and one for the spare bathroom. Isn’t life exciting?
October 1st Today was to be another admin day, a trip to the phone store to
give back my old SIM card and cancel the number. Unfortunately for us, although
the shop was open, the account side was closed until 4th October for
the holiday. A little walk was called for.
Still on phone only we found a lizard, Huawei does it well.
More scenery practice here, with a 2x, then a 3,72x and finally a 10x.
We met another photographer, one that we know, that took my photos when I received that book last month. She used to have normal OAP hobbies, music, dancing and calligraphy but she decided that she preferred taking pictures. Her camera is a full frame one, Canon R5, which with associated lenses she paid ¥30,000.00 for. She does sell photos to the media though.
By the riverside I wanted some dangling roots. I prefer the second photo apart from the fact that it has people in it. How dare they walk along the river when I am trying to take pictures?
The dragon boat train is back in the water, we think they might be selling trips again tomorrow. The market starts then for another three days. We may be staying in awaiting deliveries.
I tried another macro. I was looking at the large bud birthing two smaller ones. Until I looked closely at the camera with my glasses on I didn’t see the ant.
Passing the library we both celebrated
The director found the hanging gardens and I noticed the shopping street.
Despite Huan having no evening classes today we still decided to have dinner at lunch time. I’m glad we did; just look how healthy my plate is.
Finally, on the way home, we saluted the workers putting up the national flags!
October 2nd We started with the waiting game again this morning; our new tool cabinet was on the way. It arrived around nine o’clock and straight away the director got busy with her camera. Far too many photos were taken; here I am hard at work.
For those of you wondering why we
have a new tool cabinet, well the old one was too big for its chosen location.
Oh, you want to know why we have a tool cabinet at all. Well, unlike my family
and friends n the
Here is the old one on its way to a new home with our car repair shop downstairs. When I say ‘our’, I mean the one we use and not that we own one!
And here is our new one, minus some of the contents of the old one. I have convinced Huan that there will be some jobs I will no longer be doing!
After a lazy afternoon we went out for dinner before visiting the supermarket.
On the way out we found a photo opportunity for kids. Well, I had to didn’t I?
And on the way home we found a much better photograph. Well this is an artistic creation not a photograph but I think it is very beautiful.
October 3rd Market day again and we’re free to go visit again. We even took the camera with us today although most of the photographs ended being taken by Huan. She started off with a little kitten and a nervous chicken.
My attempt with the camera was not so good but it was above my head and we were walking. As you can see the crowds are increasing for the cool season again.
It’s not so easy to see here but I am talking to a peacock.
Fancy some salted quail eggs? If you do you’ll have to talk to this strange white frog.
And this one? Well Huan told me it is various kinds of fruit alcohol and directed me to try and take a photo of it. I did have a grumble saying “I can take pictures but, as per the boss’s orders, I’m not allowed to drink them”!
Last one of today’s crowds.
I did much better with this one.
Our Ethiopian coffee lady was back this week, nice to see her happy smiling face.
That one was taken by the good director of course. I tried some scenery and a bird. The scenery was not so bad but the bird was too far away.
The far market was still not in its cooler vibes yet.
At the end of our stroll we decided to take the #2 bus home. Huan took this to show that just like everyone else I play on my phone. All I was doing in fact was closing my health app and having a vain attempt, yet again, to work out why the audio prompts are not working.
After lunching and napping I was put to work again. It was time to stain our desk spacers, first sanding them on the stairs and then applying the stain in the spare bedroom. We did that in case the smell was too strong. In fact the smell was almost non-existent. Also, getting the stain off my hands was much easier than expected, it appears to be water and not oil based.
Rain appeared in the afternoon too so I was encouraged to change my hat and become the chef for dinner. It was nothing special, just sausage, bacon, egg, beans and Xinjiang bread. There are no photos because the result was didn’t look very photogenic or appealing. For both of us though, it was just great. It seems ages since we’ve had a fry up and we revelled in it.
October 4th Today was ‘return my old SIM card’ day. I ended up with no proof that I had returned it other than a ‘transfer of funds’ from the old number to the new one. I suppose that should be enough. Here I am waiting for the process to complete.
After that we decided to explore the riverside because we had been told that the market would still be there today. It was, and not quite so crowded either.
High above us was a bird of prey. I would never have caught this with the Xiaomi phone, in fact I probably wouldn’t have caught it with my camera either. I set the phone to 10X zoom and tried my hardest to follow it around the sky. This is SOC, no AI shenanigans.
What’s this? Is Bob becoming young and playing on his phone? Nope, I am actually recording a video and tasting Ethiopian coffee at the same time. For a change I filmed it in 9x16 instead of 16x9, you can see it here - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Wx7LLULdaHc
Here I am with another customer and the lovely Ethiopian lady who runs the stall.
We had to walk back to town for dinner which was taken in a completely new place for us.
On the way home I found a little caterpillar.
I’m sure you know what came next, a long nap before Bob was put to work again. First I had to assemble the new computer trolley. Second, against my better judgement, I had to affix the spacers to the backs of the two desks. They will be stained again tomorrow.
We had chosen a metal trolley for the PC with a shelf on top to take the UPS. There were two problems, one of which I had thought I may get around, the other I hadn’t foreseen. The second problem was that the trolley was a bit wobbly with the UPS on top. The first problem was with the PC to the left of the desk the important cables, mouse and keyboard, were not long enough. All was shuffled around again. I think it is fine now but there are no photos yet, they will be done once the painter has finished and the desks have been pushed back to the wall. At that time the speakers will be reinstalled, as will the two bookcases and all their contents. Maybe next week?
October 5th Today is the last day before the painter arrives so we took the opportunity to visit the hospital for my monthly bone filling and female hormone tablet top up. On the way Huan spotted a dragonfly and was very impressed with how the Huawei coped with it.
At the hospital, first things first, blood pressure check. It’s always high when we get here because we have walked up a hill, stood in a queue and then walked up the stairs.
Dr. Shen wasn’t busy at all today.
From there of course it was back to the cashier and then on to the pharmacy.
Soon I was being refilled and Huan was playing on her phone.
The Minister of Health then decided we should have dinner out again today.
Today was also the day that we would have new electricity meters fitted for the changeover between our maintenance company and the government electricity company. Huan took a photo of our meter before they started.
After an early nap, because we had no power, I went to check on the new meter. Where our meter used to be there was a hole! The other meters were still in their respective slots but our slot had a new busbar in it.
Our meter had been moved out of the box and now resided in a box of its very own. The box had its own normal breaker and an extra green one that appeared to be unused. We now had a VIP meter! I hope it was a happy one.
Huan put me to work again, touching up the stain on the desk spacers.
Just as I was sitting down to work on the Blog again, the electricity went off. Eventually we worked out that it was only our apartment. Huan called the maintenance office while I, feeling very frustrated, went downstairs for a nice cool coffee and a fag.
When Lu turned up he discovered that our new breaker actually fed our old breaker which takes the electricity from the box to our apartment. It appears that the old breaker was not happy with the new one and so gave up the ghost. Lu couldn’t explain to me why we had two breakers in series while everybody else only had one. He thinks it is safer! A cowboy job was done for the evening, the electricians will return tomorrow to investigate further.
I wonder if anyone would believe that this object, outside our window, was a UFO. No doubt someone somewhere would. It is of course a reflection of our LED light in the office which is missing its shade until the office painting is completed.
So there we are, another week over and done with. By next week things should be getting more and more back to normal. How can you know? Well, click to subscribe! Also remember to click to enlarge photos, to comment or to ask questions. See you next time!
